In 1945 Ward began practising osteopathy in London, and rapidly became successful and fashionable, with many distinguished clients. In his spare time he also studied at the Slade School, and developed a talent for sketching portraits which provided a profitable sideline. His practice and his art brought considerable social success, and he made many important friends. Among these was Lord Astor, at whose country house, Cliveden, in the summer of 1961, Ward introduced Profumo to a 19-year-old showgirl and night-club model, Christine Keeler. Profumo, who was married to the actress Valerie Hobson, embarked on a brief affair with Keeler, most of their assignations taking place in Ward's home in Wimpole Mews.

Ward's friendship with the Russian military attaché Yevgeny Ivanov, known by MI5 to be an intelligence officer, drew him to the attention of British intelligence, who sought to use him in an attempt to secure Ivanov's defection. The matter became complicated when, through Ward, Ivanov met Keeler, raising the possibility of a Profumo-Keeler-Ivanov triangle. Profumo ended the relationship with Keeler, which remained largely unsuspected until early in 1963, when the disintegration of Keeler's private life brought matters to public and press attention. Profumo denied any impropriety in a statement to the House of Commons, but a few weeks later admitted his affair. He resigned his ministerial office and his parliamentary seat. Amid a range of rumours of widespread sex scandals in government and high society, the police began to investigate Ward. In June 1963 he was charged with immorality offences and committed to trial.

In the trial that followed, in July 1963, Ward was abandoned by his society friends and exposed to the contempt and hostility of prosecuting counsel and judge. Despite the relative paucity of evidence and the dismissal of most of the charges against him, he was convicted on two counts of living off immoral earnings. However, before the verdict was announced, Ward took an overdose of sleeping pills and died three days later. The death was accepted as suicide at the time, though later theories have raised a suggestion that he could have been killed on the orders of MI5. The trial has been disparaged as a travesty of justice, an act of Establishment revenge for the fall of Profumo and the government's embarrassment. In 2014 the verdict was under review by the Criminal Cases Review Commission, with a view to a possible appeal.

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Born in Lemsford, Hertfordshire, Stephen Ward was the son of Arthur Evelyn Ward, vicar of Lemsford, and Eileen Esmée, née Vigors. The Vigors family were of distinguished Anglo-Irish stock; the explorer Wilfred Thesiger was a cousin. In 1920 the family moved to Torquay in Devon, when Ward's father became Vicar of St. Matthias.[1]

Ward attended Canford School as a boarder, where he was unjustly punished for an assault on a fellow-pupil after refusing to name the real culprit. This experience left a longstanding mark. Somewhat lazy and a regular underachiever, he had few realistic career choices when he left Canford in 1929. He moved to London, where he worked for a few months as a carpet salesman in Houndsditch before an uncle found him a job in Hamburg as a translator in the German branch of Shell Oil.[2] After a year he left the Hamburg job for Paris, and registered for a course at the Sorbonne, while eking out a living as a tour guide. He returned briefly to Torquay in 1932 before moving again to London where he worked as a tea salesman. In 1934 he was persuaded by his mother to seek qualification as an osteopath, by studying at the Kirksville College of Osteopathy and Surgery in Missouri.[3] He spent four years there, completing a demanding course that qualified him as a general medical practitioner in the United States and entitled him to the prefix "doctor".[1] Ward was greatly impressed by the United States. He later commented: "I loved America and Americans, a warm-hearted, open and dynamic people. Their kindness and hospitality made me feel ashamed of the standoffish way the British treat people".[4]

On his return from America Ward set up as an osteopath in Torquay. On the outbreak of war in September 1939 he volunteered for service in the Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC), but was rejected because his American qualifications were not recognised. In 1941 he was conscripted as a private into the Royal Armoured Corps, based at Bovington. His osteopathic skills became known, and for much of his time at Bovington he was relieved from general duties and permitted to practise his profession. This arrangement offended the RAMC, and after an inquiry Ward's activities were stopped. However, in view of his evident talents he was recommended for a commission in the RAMC within the new category of "stretcher-bearer".[5]

In March 1944 Ward was posted to India. The army still found it difficult to accommodate him, and he spent much time canvassing for the proper recognition of osteopathy, while being officially assigned to non-medical duties. However, he found opportunities to practise his skills; among those whom he treated was Mahatma Gandhi, who impressed Ward: "Although much of his policy was opposed to that of my own country. I knew that when I was with him I was in the presence of greatness, and my encounter with him was certainly the most important meeting of my life".[5] Following a nervous collapse that led to a period in a psychiatric hospital, Ward returned to England in October 1945 and was discharged from the army "on grounds of disability".[5][6]

After the Second World War, Ward worked for the Osteopathic Association Clinic in Dorset Square, London. While there he had opportunities to treat well-known public figures, the first of whom was the American ambassador, W. Averell Harriman. Later he treated Duncan Sandys, the son-in-law of Winston Churchill; Sandys recommended Ward to Churchill himself. Ward now had sufficient status and recommendations to set up his own private practice, in Cavendish Square just off Harley Street.[7] He soon attracted a clientele from the worlds of politics, society and show business, and his social life became absorbed into this milieu; Ward's polished manners and conversational skills assured him of social success. He befriended the cartoonist and socialite Arthur Ferrier, whose parties he attended regularly and where he mixed with, among others, Prince Philip of Greece, later the Duke of Edinburgh but then a junior officer in the Royal Navy.[8] His own parties were noted for their social mix: "a barrister, a barrow-boy, a writer, a motor salesman, a peer, and always, for some reason, a steady stream of pretty girls".[9]

Ward enjoyed the company of beautiful women, but his libido was low and his relationships were often platonic.[1] His preference was for the type he called "alley-cats" – city girls that he could impress and dominate.[10] He generally enjoyed discussing and watching sexual activity rather than participating,[9] a factor which may have contributed to the failure of his marriage, in July 1949, to an actress, Patricia Mary Baines, who came from a prosperous middle-class background.[1][10]

Throughout the 1950s Ward's practice grew. Among his new patients was Lord Astor who became a close friend and who helped Ward to cement his place in London society. Conversely, Ward introduced the shy Astor to his own world of night-clubs, parties and girls.[11] In 1956, for a nominal rent, Astor gave Ward the use of a riverside cottage in his grounds of the Astor family estate at Cliveden in Buckinghamshire. Many of Ward's assorted friends from all walks of life joined him for weekends at the cottage, where from time to time they would be joined by Astor and his guests from the main house. Sometimes Ward and his party would mingle with the gatherings at the main house.[12]

In his spare time Ward had attended art classes at the Slade school,[1] and subsequently he developed a profitable sideline in portrait sketches. In 1960 he was commissioned by The Illustrated London News to provide a series of portraits of national and international figures. These included members of the Royal family, among them Prince Philip and Princess Margaret.[13] Ward hoped to visit the Soviet Union to draw portraits of Soviet leaders; to help him, one of his patients, the Daily Telegraph editor Sir Colin Coote, arranged an introduction to Yevgeny Ivanov, listed as a naval attaché at the Soviet Embassy.[14] British Intelligence (MI5) knew from the Soviet double-agent Oleg Penkovsky that Ivanov was an intelligence officer in the Russian GRU.[15] Ward and Ivanov became firm friends. Ivanov frequently visited Ward at Wimpole Mews, and sometimes joined Ward's weekend parties at the Cliveden cottage.[16]

MI5 considered Ivanov a possible defector, and sought Ward's help to this end, allocating him to a case officer known as "Woods".[17][18] Ward was later used by the British Foreign Office as a backchannel, through Ivanov, to the Soviet Union,[19] and was involved in unofficial diplomacy at the time of the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.[20]

In 1959 Ward met Christine Keeler, a 17-year-old showgirl who was working at Murray's Cabaret Club in Beak Street, Soho. Captivated by his charm, she agreed to move in with him, although their relationship was not sexual. She stayed with him, on and off, for the next several years, and often spent time at the riverside cottage. During the weekend of 8–9 July 1961 Keeler was among several guests at the cottage with Ward.[21] At the main house, among a large gathering from the worlds of politics and the arts, was John Profumo, the Secretary of State for War, and his wife, the actress Valerie Hobson. On the Saturday evening, Ward's and Astor's parties mingled at the Cliveden swimming pool, which Ward and his guests had permission to use.[22] Ward introduced Keeler to Profumo, who was greatly attracted to her,[23] and promised to be in touch. Ward later reported to MI5 that Profumo and Ivanov had met, and that Profumo had shown considerable interest in Keeler. This information was an unwelcome complication in MI5's plans to use her in a honeytrap operation against Ivanov, that might secure his defection.[24]

Keeler and Profumo embarked on a brief affair; some suggest that it ended after a few weeks, while others believe that it continued, with decreasing fervour, until December 1961.[24][25][26] The couple usually met at Ward's house in Wimpole Mews; Profumo did not pay Keeler for her services, apart from a few small presents and once, a sum of £20 as a gift for her mother.[25] On 9 August 1961 Profumo was warned by Sir Norman Brook, the Cabinet Secretary,[26] of the dangers of mixing with Ward's group, since MI5 were at this stage unsure of Ward's dependability.[25] That same day, Profumo wrote Keeler a letter, beginning "Darling...", cancelling an assignation they had made for the following day. Some commentators have assumed that this letter ended the association;[24] Keeler insists that the affair ended later, after her persistent refusals to stop living with Ward.[27]

Press and public remained largely ignorant of the Keeler-Profumo liaison until early in 1963, when Keeler became a focus of newspaper attention as the "missing witness" in a case involving one of her former lovers, Johnny Edgecombe. At that point Keeler began talking indiscriminately, and attempted to sell her story to newspapers.[28] None at this stage dared print it, but rumours of the affair were widespread, and there was much speculation. A few days after the trial, on 21 March, the satirical magazine Private Eye printed the most detailed summary so far of the rumours, with the main characters lightly disguised: "Mr James Montesi", "Miss Gaye Funloving", "Dr Spook" and "Vladimir Bolokhov". In a statement to the House of Commons on 22 March 1963, Profumo denied any impropriety with Keeler.[29] Ward, who knew the truth, at first supported Profumo;[30] however, when he found himself the target of an aggressive police investigation, and facing immorality charges, he revealed his knowledge to Profumo's political masters and to the press.[31] Profumo found the burden of sustaining his lie too much, confessed his guilt and resigned from government and parliament.[32] Two days after the resignation, amid growing rumours of widespread sex scandals in government and high society, Ward was arrested and charged with several counts of living off immoral earnings and of procuring.[33]

Ward's committal proceedings began on 28 June, at Marylebone magistrates' court, where the Crown's evidence was fully reported in the press.[34] Ward was committed for trial at the Old Bailey, but was released on bail pending trial.[35] In his account of the trial, which began on 22 July, Richard Davenport-Hines describes it as an act of political revenge: "The exorcism of scandal in high places required the façade of [Ward's] conviction on vice charges".[1] While living with Ward, Keeler and her fellow-model Mandy Rice-Davies had made small contributions to household expenses, and had repaid money lent to them by Ward. The thrust of the prosecution's case, in which Keeler and Rice-Davies were their principal witnesses, was that these payments indicated that Ward was living off their immoral earnings. Ward's approximate income at the time, from his practice and from his portraiture, had been around £5,500 a year, a substantial sum at that time.[36]

The prosecution's case looked weak; however, Ward's perceived image had been heavily tarnished in the committal proceeding. None of his well-known friends offered to speak on his behalf, and MI5 did not reveal the uses they had made of Ward as a channel of communication to the Russians.[37] The prosecuting counsel, Mervyn Griffith-Jones, portrayed Ward as representing "the very depths of lechery and depravity",[38] while the judge, Sir Archie Marshall, adopted a similarly hostile attitude. Towards the end of the trial, information relating to another case, in which Keeler had been a leading witness, was revealed by the Court of Appeal. This indicated that Keeler's evidence in that earlier case had been false. Marshall did not reveal the salient fact to the Ward trial jury that the reliability of the prosecution's chief witness had been compromised, and effectively invited the jury to disregard the appeal court's decision.[39] On 30 July Marshall began his summing-up, in a speech that was so damning that Ward despaired. That evening, after writing numerous letters to friends and to the authorities, Ward took an overdose of sleeping tablets and was taken to hospital. On the next day Marshall completed his summing-up; the jury found Ward guilty in absentia on the charges of living off the immoral earnings of Keeler and Rice-Davies, while acquitting him of several other counts. Sentence was postponed until Ward was fit to appear, but on 3 August he died without regaining consciousness.[40]

On 9 August, a coroner's jury ruled Ward's death a suicide by barbiturate poisoning. According to reports, Ward left several notes, one of which read, "I'm sorry to disappoint the vulture [...] I feel the day is lost. The ritual sacrifice is demanded and I cannot face it."[41] On the day of the inquest, after a private memorial service at the chapel in St Stephen's Hospital, Ward's remains were cremated at Mortlake Crematorium.[42] In their accounts of the security aspects of the Profumo affair, Anthony Summers and Stephen Dorril provide extra information concerning Ward's last hours, his movements and his visitors. They also quote from an interview with "a former MI6 operative", who asserted that Ward had been murdered by an agent working on behalf of MI6. The main motive for the killing was Ward's continuing ability to embarrass the government and the Royal family. The method, apparently, was to encourage Ward to continue to take barbiturates until a fatal dose had been ingested. The reporter Tom Mangold, one of the last to see Ward alive, dismisses the murder theory, while allowing that there are unexplained circumstances relating to Ward's death.[43][44]

The government appointed Lord Denning, the Master of the Rolls, to investigate the various rumours that had emanated from and around the Profumo affair. Denning's report, published on 26 September 1963,[45] concluded that there had been no security leaks,[46] and no evidence to link members of the government with associated scandals.[47] He laid most of the blame for the affair on Ward, an "utterly immoral" man whose diplomatic activities were "misconceived and misdirected".[48] The Profumo affair had damaged Harold Macmillan's government; Macmillan resigned as prime minister in October 1963, citing health reasons. His successor was Lord Home, who renounced his peerage and served as Sir Alec Douglas-Home.[49] In the October 1964 general election the Conservative government was narrowly defeated by the Labour Party, and Harold Wilson became prime minister.[50]

Ward's role on behalf of MI5 was confirmed in 1982, when the Sunday Times located his former contact, "Woods".[51] Keeler, in one of several accounts of her life, has denounced Ward as a Soviet spy, and a traitor ranking alongside Philby, Burgess and Maclean, but without direct supporting evidence.[52] Many commentators share Davenport-Hines's view that Ward was a scapegoat and that his trial was an "historical injustice".[1] The human rights lawyer Geoffrey Robertson has campaigned for the case to be reopened on several grounds, including the premature scheduling of the trial, lack of evidence to support the main charges, and various misdirections by the trial judge in his summing up. Above all, the judge failed to disclose Keeler's perjury at an earlier trial, which made her a tainted witness.[53] In January 2014 the case was being considered by the Criminal Cases Review Commission, with a view to allowing an appeal.[54]